Rebels Push Deep Into Chad From Bases Set Up in Sudan

Published: April 13, 2006

Chadian rebels based in the western Darfur region of Sudan have launched their first attack deep inside Chad, reaching hundreds of miles into the country to attack government forces.

The police said Wednesday that the rebels were 180 miles from Ndjamena, the capital, and seemed intent on capturing it. France, which supports the government of President Idriss D?, said it was adding 150 troops to its contingent of about 1,200. The troops are being dispatched from Gabon, the French Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Ndjamena remained calm Wednesday. The capital's cellphone network went down Wednesday afternoon but land lines kept working. The government sometimes interferes with private communications during crises.

The rebels' initial attack came Tuesday in the central town of Mongo, 250 miles east of the capital, said a government spokesman, Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor. There were no casualties, officials said. Both cellphone networks and land lines were down.

The troubles in Chad have revived fears that the Darfur conflict has the potential to undermine the entire region where Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic meet.

Decades of low-level tribal clashes over land and water in Darfur erupted into large-scale violence in early 2003 when ethnic African tribes took up arms, accusing the Arab-dominated central government of neglect. The government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab tribal militias known as janjaweed to murder and rape civilians and lay waste to villages, a charge it denies.

Sudan has accused Chad of harboring Darfur rebels, while Chad has said Sudan backs Chadian insurgents.

The instability in the lawless border region has made it easier for rebels to organize. The crisis has sent an exodus of Sudanese refugees into Chad, and Mr. D? has been accused of doing too little to help Sudanese in Darfur who share ethnic links with many Chadians.

Mr. D? seized power in a 1990 coup and has seen his authority undermined by the violence in Sudan and what appears to be a struggle for control of newly discovered oil reserves.

Since October, the rebels have been skirmishing with government forces along the border, which is more than 600 miles east of Ndjamena.

The leaders of Sudan and Chad signed a peace agreement on Feb. 9 to ease tensions over Darfur, but the chaos on the ground has not yet been resolved.

In Paris, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Jean-Baptiste Matt? said France condemned all efforts to seize power by force and called Chad an ''anchor for the stability of the continent as a whole.''

In the past, troops from France, which is one of Chad's largest financial supporters, have protected aid workers in eastern Chad who are helping Darfur's refugees.